I’m trying to sell a board and some guy wrote to me asking if he could try it out first. He said the salesman at the surfshop told him his present board is the “fastest surfboard made0.” LOL. And it wasn’t. LOL. And since I advertised my board as being fast (it’s a 6’-10" six channel thruster) he wanted to try it first to test my claim. I said no and he got all pissed off saying I was a “hard sell.”
My question is this- does anyone ever let people try their boards before they buy them? I’ve never heard of such a thing (except for SurFTECH). If there is someone who lets people test drive boards in the LA area I’d like to know. There’s a whole bunch of boards I want to test drive!
Howzit llilibel, Not unheard of but I would ask for the person to give you the amount of money you are asking to insure they don't steal the board and also tell them that if they ding it they pay or if they break it they buy it. This might make them have a change of heart and just check it out before buying it. The only time I ever have let some one test a board is if it was a friend who I trusted really well. It's kind of like how FCS does their fin loaners for testing. They make the eprson give them their credit card so if the person doesn't return the fins they get charged for them. Aloha,Kokua
T&C did a test day last year at head high Kewalo basin last year. From what I heard they had a large quiver of demo boards ranging from fish to thrusters to longboards.
First off. Who would listen to a surfshop salesman and believe a line like," Fastest board made." You would have to be pretty green to believe it and probably would not know or have the ability to tell if the board was “fast” or not. I certainly don’t let people I don’t know try out a board. Mike
when I first posted my first couple of hardwood compsandos on craigslist I got something like 15-20 inquires for me to bring them to be seen first. So instead of driving all over the damn island or having a bunch of strangers come over to my house at night. I emailed everyone back and told them I’d meet them at my favorite beach and it was first come first serve cash only basis and they could actually try them out before they made up their mind. Compsandos of all differents sizes and shapes…
guess what.
not one idiot showed up
so I’m stuck the beach with 6-8 compsand in my car while I’m watching the waves break with hardly anyone out totally pissed. Not only that but I can only surf for real short time cause I’m worried about leaving all my compsands in a hot car. so after about 15-20 minutes I have to come in and go home. Vowing never to believe another response to a craiglist posting again…
So I guess yeah I would consider doing it.
I know I would appreciate it if I were given the opportunity but being able to have them take it home is another thing though cause I trust that less than I trust the craigslist thing.
Ask any shaper/store owner most walk in surfers are just full of sh*t anyway all talk no cash… Getting someone to pay for quality or extras other than a fancy splash job is like pulling teeth. So the result is to feed them BS to combat the BS they bring in… It’s heaven when a real connection can be made between the builder and buyer before the order… Most builders will tell you that its rare indeed.
BTW a 6’10" 6 channel will be fast but only with clean faces and some juice… put that in mush sideshore with no push in the wave anf channels can be your worse nightmare… So you might want to qualify what “fast” means… Sounds like a good south pacific/indo/northshore board…
we have many many test boards in store, we dont like hard sell we want customers to try out the boards and see for themselves. we have 90% + success rate. we have, twins , quads, compsands, longboards and the usual shortys. we just get a credit card swipe for security. works great. keep it quiet tho no-one else does it around here…
I’m trying to sell a board and some guy wrote to me asking if he could try it out first. He said the salesman at the surfshop told him his present board is the “fastest surfboard made0.” LOL. And it wasn’t. LOL. And since I advertised my board as being fast (it’s a 6’-10" six channel thruster) he wanted to try it first to test my claim. I said no and he got all pissed off saying I was a “hard sell.”
My question is this- does anyone ever let people try their boards before they buy them? I’ve never heard of such a thing (except for SurFTECH). If there is someone who lets people test drive boards in the LA area I’d like to know. There’s a whole bunch of boards I want to test drive!
Howzit llilibel, Not unheard of but I would ask for the person to give you the amount of money you are asking to insure they don't steal the board and also tell them that if they ding it they pay or if they break it they buy it. This might make them have a change of heart and just check it out before buying it. The only time I ever have let some one test a board is if it was a friend who I trusted really well. It's kind of like how FCS does their fin loaners for testing. They make the eprson give them their credit card so if the person doesn't return the fins they get charged for them. Aloha,Kokua
T&C did a test day last year at head high Kewalo basin last year. From what I heard they had a large quiver of demo boards ranging from fish to thrusters to longboards.
First off. Who would listen to a surfshop salesman and believe a line like," Fastest board made." You would have to be pretty green to believe it and probably would not know or have the ability to tell if the board was “fast” or not. I certainly don’t let people I don’t know try out a board. Mike
when I first posted my first couple of hardwood compsandos on craigslist I got something like 15-20 inquires for me to bring them to be seen first. So instead of driving all over the damn island or having a bunch of strangers come over to my house at night. I emailed everyone back and told them I’d meet them at my favorite beach and it was first come first serve cash only basis and they could actually try them out before they made up their mind. Compsandos of all differents sizes and shapes…
guess what.
not one idiot showed up
so I’m stuck the beach with 6-8 compsand in my car while I’m watching the waves break with hardly anyone out totally pissed. Not only that but I can only surf for real short time cause I’m worried about leaving all my compsands in a hot car. so after about 15-20 minutes I have to come in and go home. Vowing never to believe another response to a craiglist posting again…
So I guess yeah I would consider doing it.
I know I would appreciate it if I were given the opportunity but being able to have them take it home is another thing though cause I trust that less than I trust the craigslist thing.
Ask any shaper/store owner most walk in surfers are just full of sh*t anyway all talk no cash… Getting someone to pay for quality or extras other than a fancy splash job is like pulling teeth. So the result is to feed them BS to combat the BS they bring in… It’s heaven when a real connection can be made between the builder and buyer before the order… Most builders will tell you that its rare indeed.
BTW a 6’10" 6 channel will be fast but only with clean faces and some juice… put that in mush sideshore with no push in the wave anf channels can be your worse nightmare… So you might want to qualify what “fast” means… Sounds like a good south pacific/indo/northshore board…
we have many many test boards in store, we dont like hard sell we want customers to try out the boards and see for themselves. we have 90% + success rate. we have, twins , quads, compsands, longboards and the usual shortys. we just get a credit card swipe for security. works great. keep it quiet tho no-one else does it around here…